BA or AA?
 

I am about to start a new job down in London, and will be doing roughly 1 or 2 economy UK Domestic flights a month, with the possibility of occasional flights to Europe and the USA.

As a basic member of BA and AA, which would you recommend for a new starter? Or would you recommend another programme?

[This message has been edited by Trotman (edited Feb 24, 2004).]

Depends on what fares you'll (or your employer) be buying (especially trans-Atlantic), and also where you'll be flying to in the U.S. You will get to higher status faster with BA if you buy expensive fare class tickets.

On this thread, we are not allowed to recommend carriers other than OW.
I agree with above suggestion of BA program for expensive tickets and AA program for cheap tickets. So it all depends whether you are working for a merchant bank or the NHS.

"As a basic member of BA and AA, which would you recommend for a new starter? Or would you recommend another programme?"

I would suggest the Qantas scheme if you are going to do a mixture of cheap non-tier BA point earning flights and flexible tickets. Domestic Flights booked in J on BA earn 30 status credits on QF and flights on the cheapie tickets earn 10 compared to 20 and 0 for those collecting to the BA scheme

You will reach OW emerald quicker with QF than with BA or AA.

Dave

My first flight (paid for by my employer) will be a full-fare economy ticket, with the remainder being dicount-economy tickets (stupid budget cutbacks!).

With regards to the USA flights, it will be the occasional return flight to JFK.

And BTW when I said "other programmes" I meant other OW FFPs.

Any further suggestions?

If you are still looking at the BA or AA program, remember that you will only earn miles for trans-Atlantic flights from the airline whose program you belong to, i.e. AA flights only earn in AAdvantage, BA flights only earn in Exec Club.

"Transatlantic" presumably not including Canada.

Why does everyone forget LanChile's program? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

The wording on the BA website is 'Miles cannot be earned on AA's direct services to/from the Americas and Europe' - so if you connected through, say, JFK you wouldn't earn miles on the transatlantic sector.

Yes, but he specifically stated he would be doing turnarounds to JFK.

Still not 100% sure, but I think Ill stick with the British and go with BA.

I suppose I've got both so if I did ever have to do trans-atlantic in AA, I've got an account.

Both have UK credit cards, and a wide range of other partners... actually on the subject of credit cards would you recommend the Amex or Tesco option?

Don't forget that if you fly on dicounted tickets you will not earn any status on BA and only 25% of miles flown. For a discounted traveler stay away from BA unless you think you will earn more miles via AMEX/Tesco than you would flying and crediting them to AA.

Thanks for the advice. I didn't realise BA didn't give Tier Points for discounted economy. Looks like I might have to reconsider AA, but it looks harder to get any status with them.

What about Qantas or any other OW programmes? Do any others offer a UK credit card?

"What about Qantas or any other OW programmes? "

Qantas fives Tier Credits on all classes on BA. On a shorthaul domestic, you would earn 10 in discount economy, 20 on a Y basis and 30 on a CD or J basis. QF Silver status requires 350 credits, gold 700 and Platinum 1400


Dave